Monday Meditations

Praying for so much this week on a variety of things. I pray daily for LynnMarie,her birth parents, her caregivers and for us to become the parents she needs. I pray for China. I pray for the people who will be transporting us to China (can never pray to early, can ya?), praying for referrals, praying for our families who are waiting along with all of us and I am thanking God for this amazing journey! What about you?

Community

When we said yes to adoption, we had no idea what was in store. I really had not experienced community before but adoption (even just the wait) led to a wonderful support group which led to a a wonderful church which led to a very cool small group. I have not even began to think about the community. Those of you who visit this blog or chat with me on Saturday mornings or have met us for a dinner somewhere around the country have managed to encourage us beyond belief. You have made our wait exciting and have made me look foward to being a family in a new light. I can not believe how much this community has helped change us this past year. Really, I mean change. The kind of change you can not blog about. You have encouraged my weight loss, worked with Michael and I on various things and I know some of you are still praying for us.

We have struggles. Some of you know our struggles very well. The mental, the physical, the spiritual and the emotional.

I am so thankful for all of these things. We do not get to see a lot of our First Friday friends more than once a month, but I do feel like its a family. I have a feeling if I needed help (of any kind), even a stranger would help me. Wowsers! I have never felt this before, way cool!!!!

We have been blessed this week. Blessed Big. This blessing made me feel loved. Now, I am not saying my family didn't love me, they did and that's not what I am talking about. People who knew what our needs are now and what they will be closer to LynnMarie and said hey, we want to help you. This doesn't sound like much but to me this is big. I have found friends who really love me. Its an awesome, comfortable feeling.

What was the blessing you may ask? A beautiful crib. This took away a financial stress and a mental one as I never would have been able to pick out one so beautiful!

So friends, you raised our spirits, took away a stress and demonstrated God's love just by being you. You guys rock and you make my heart smile!!


....and to all of you who have ever commented or simply read this blog, thank you.

Don't forget the chat tomorrow

See that button on my sidebar that says I am at the Sat morning chat? Hmm, how about you clicking on it lets say between 8-12 (Ga time)tomorrow? That will take you to the Seventh Diamond blog and you can hang out with some cool adoption families and just have some online fellowship (that would be a cool blog title,heehee)

Hope to see you there !!!!!

17 months since are wait officially began. When will LynnMarie come home?
Ill let you know what book I pick later. Its my turn to pick Woohoo

This is the book I chose for the month. I am loving this author, Amy krouse Rosenthal. We have another one off her books caled Cookies, bite sized lessons..One of my favorites

Monday Meditations

I have missed a couple of Mondays for various reasons but mostly I did not want to come here with just a list. I wanted to share what was on my heart and hear what is on yours!

Lots to be thankful for and lots to talk to God about this week!

I am thankful for
-adoption friends who have made this an amazing wait
-First Fridays
-the time I have had to accomplish some goals
-families who have recently been united and those who are just about to meet their new family member
-that the SN program has had more people interested
-that Susannah is getting better (most of you know who I am talking about, just dont have her link)
- RMJ at The Seventh Diamond for her Saturday morning chats. What? You dont know what I am talking about? Check out my sidebar and I will see you Saturday


I am praying for
-the sick babies in China
-families who are getting frustrated with the wait
-travel mercies for those heading to China for adoption and those who are going to help
-those who are considering a SN adoption
-God to prepare all of us waiting families for our child. There is purpose of this wait and we never see it but I trust I will be stronger because of it

Ok, so what's on your heart today? I have missed this!
-Amanda at Starfish

Walk for a Cure

Next month I am participating in a Walk for the Cure event for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I have a personal goal of raising $300 and I need sponsors to do it. If you would like to help, you can make an online donation at my pledge page by going here...

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87158946

Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated, and if I hit my goal before you can get there, it certainly does not mean you can't donate too!

Thanks!

Date Day

Amy worked last night, so she came home to sleep a bit before we went out. We had decided to go to the movies today, so I woke her around noon and I left to go to the gym. When I got home she was ready. I took a quick shower and we headed out to a 1:45 showing of Mamma Mia. Yeah, it should be considered a chick flick, but here's the deal. I like theatre, especially musicals, so I was enthused. Besides this, my mother brought me up listening to ABBA. We both liked the film a lot and so I would encourage you all to check it out (if you can fit it in around raising your kids!). Here's a montage of a bit of the music... (oh yeah, we went to the grocery store, Amy is at the gym, and I'm doing a little housework before I cook dinner).

What is fun?

One thing that is fun is being able to sit on a floor and be loved on by about a dozen basset hounds at one time!

This morning Amy and I got our motivated selves out of bed and to the early service for church. After church we came home for lunch (I had breakfast for lunch).

Around 2pm we got in the car to truck over to Roswell for an event at PetSmart. It was BHRG day! That's Basset Hound Rescue of Georgia! We met a lot of furry friends including Floppy, Fannie May, Orlando, Mason, Eloise and Sierra. We talked about what it will take for us to adopt and that we could also consider fostering dogs needing forever families. We miss Lucy.

After playing with the dogs we went next door to Trader Joe's. Amy has been raving about this grocery store which has a loyal trendy following. From what I can see, they keep it small, about 1/3 he size of a regular grocery the focus is on their own brand of everything, organics, and a handful of namebrands including Ben & Jerry's (one flavor), Fiji water, and about every type of meal-replacement bar you can name.

We came home to relax a bit and then went out to dinner at a sports bar/tex-mex joint called Taco Mac. I noticed a couple coming in with an infant and pointed them out to Amy because the baby had little hair for being about 10 months old. It turns out Amy knows the baby! He's on of the ones she cares for in the nursery at church, so we stopped by their table to introduce ourselves as we were leaving.

So what do you think

Since turning in our MCC (medical condition checklist) in June, I have had some great conversations. A lot of people are asking, "what do you think you will get?" or "Do you have a gut feeling about a special need?"


I have one friend who really thinks LynnMarie will have a cleft condition. Now, to me that would make sense since i have been working with cleft children for almost 7 years. I have no idea what she will have. We checked off A LOT of conditions. If I had to ask, I think she will have a cleft lip or palate or some type of ortho problem We will see.

I guess it kind of like when you are pregnant and you wonder what color hair will she have or if she will have hair at all..

On a serious note, the phone rang this week and had the 303 area code and said Colorado. My heart rate went up only to get a call from a furniture store. That was sooooo not cool!

Casting Crowns: Slow Fade Video

Family is sooooo important!

Special purchase

Today, I (Amy) went to the Yellow Daisy Festival here in Atlanta (actually Stone Mountain) and had a blast walking with friends and looking at hundreds of vendors.

2 interesting things happened. In the early afternoon, I was looking with friends at something and someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked "Are you Amy"? I said yes and she said I am Pam C. You see, Pam is a waiting family in Roswell and we have been visiting blogs and sending emails back and forth for months. The plan was to meet at First Friday tomorrow but I got to meet her early. How cool was that? There were thousands of people there, and the 2 of us wandered in the same place at the same time. I can tell she rocks and cant wait to visit with her.

We keep wandering and see something that looks a bit Asian. I notice that a man has a beautiful display of prints. He has different names written in Chinese. Of course I looked. Now, my plan was to buy the names Lynn and Marie and combine it. He asked me what I was looking for and I wrote down her name and he said come back in an hour. Then he said wait. Then, he proceeded to do the piece you see below. Is it not beautiful? The best part of the day was not the artwork but the conversation that went with it. He asked me about LynnMarie. He wanted to know if she was in an orphanage or a foster home and I explained that we were waiting. He then told me " Good for you. Daughters from China love their mommas. Doesn't matter if they live in China or America, Chinese girls love their mommas and LynnMarie will love you. He told me that adoption is a most wonderful gift and my life will be changed forever. He said he was sorry the wait was so long, as if this was his fault.This sweet man touched my heart. Now, my coworker that went with does not know a lot about China adoption but boy was she excited about this story and the artwork. This man touched two lives that day. He told me he is from Guangzhou and I asked him about the White Swan (since I really do not know much about the place). He said " Yes I know the White Swan, it is very old but has lots of heart". He laughed and said there was much more to China than the White Swan. My coworker thought he meant pandas. Oh dear.
I hope I see this man again. I do have his card if anyone is interested in his work.

I can not imagine my life if we had not said Ok God regarding adoption. I would not have as many heart warming stories to share. My life would be incredibly different.

and my friend Lauryn (after hearing about China and ladybugs) said she would be okay if she did not see a ladybug again for a very long time. Apparently I spotted a lot of them.

Monday Meditations

I am pray for those who serve our country who are not with their families.
I pray for those in the path of the enormous storm
I pray for LynnMarie
I pray for myself.
I pray for those who are waiting
I pray for all of China
I pray God will continue to mold us into the parents He created us to be

Your turn. Join me, won't you?